Opinion

Is the civil aircraft market becoming over-inflated? Airbus’s annual report card captures a company in rude health: full-year net profit jumped 15 percent, cash flow was strong and its backlog of orders for commercial aircraft stands at a record high. Even the long-suffering Airbus A380 is at break-even. But investors holding Airbus on the seeming strength of its order book …

It is the fourth most lucrative illegal trade in the world and Malaysia is among its thriving hubs. The global black market for wildlife and wildlife products is estimated to be about US$20 billion, ranking below drug smuggling, human trafficking and the illegal arms trade. Over the past four decades, more than 50 percent of the world’s wildlife has been …

Donald Trump’s big win in Nevada, with Marco Rubio pulling even with or just ahead of Ted Cruz, fuels the conventional wisdom that the Republican presidential contest is now down to a two-man race. However, this year the conventional wisdom has been consistently wrong. Next Tuesday will test that two-man theory. Ted Cruz, despite third-place finish in South Carolina and …

International attention has once again closed in on the South China Sea over claims that China has deployed HQ-9 surface-to-air missile batteries to Woody Island. Reports suggest that US intelligence sources have confirmed the presence of these mobile batteries, whereas satellite images of Woody Island earlier this month showed no such batteries. China’s Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, has downplayed concerns …

“For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction” Newton’s Third Law of Motion Notice the Newtonian physics of America’s Madisonian system. Barack Obama’s Woodrow Wilsonian hostility to the separation of powers, expressed in his executive authoritarianism, is provoking equal and opposite reactions from the judicial and legislative branches. The Supreme Court has inflicted on Obama a defeat accurately …

The borrowing spree has started to boomerang, leading global economy to moan under a record pile of debt. On record, the world has continued to borrow since the 2008 financial crisis, adding nearly $60 trillion, pushing the worldwide debt load to $200 trillion in 2014, nearly three times the size of the entire global economy. History has it that the …

Bill SAVADOVE A new stock market regulator chief could give China’s beleaguered shares a short-term lift, but analysts say Liu Shiyu faces the same old problems as his ousted predecessor: shattered market confidence and the need for sweeping reforms. Xiao Gang was dismissed as chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), state media reported Saturday, after a three-year tenure …

China’s Air Force has created a new unit dedicated solely to tracking and responding to drones, according to China Daily. In a press release, the PLA Air Force said the unit would focus on “small, slow-moving drones flying at an altitude of less than 1,000 meters,” China Daily reported. The language in the report makes it seem as though military …

The Indonesian government is to issue the details of a new regulation that will allow foreign investors to hold 100 per cent ownership of geothermal power plants with a capacity of 10 MW or more. For plants with a capacity of less than 10 MW, foreign investment will be capped at 67 per cent. While it represents Indonesia’s efforts to …

In recent years, the “Occupy” movements and “Arab Spring” came to symbolize popular actions for social change across the world. In Southeast Asia, the massive gathering of citizens against an unjust political order is more widely known as an expression and legacy of “People Power.” The idea of People Power became a potent political force when it led to the …